Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Our European Wastes And Heaths Are But A Feeble Image Of The
Savannahs Of The New Continent Which For The Space Of Eight Or Ten
Thousand Square Leagues Are Smooth As The Surface Of The Sea.
The
immensity of their extent insures impunity to robbers, who conceal
themselves more effectually in the savannahs than in
Our mountains and
forests; and it is easy to conceive that even a European police would
not be very effective in regions where there are travellers and no
roads, herds and no herdsmen, and farms so solitary that
notwithstanding the powerful action of the mirage, a journey of
several days may be made without seeing one appear within the horizon.
Whilst traversing the Llanos of Caracas, New Barcelona, and Cumana,
which succeed each other from west to east, from the snowy mountains
of Merida to the Delta of the Orinoco, we feel anxious to know whether
these vast tracts of land are destined by nature to serve eternally
for pasture or whether they will at some future time be subject to the
plough and the spade. This question is the more important as the
Llanos, situated at the two extremities of South America, are
obstacles to the political union of the provinces they separate. They
prevent the agriculture of the coast of Venezuela from extending
towards Guiana and they impede that of Potosi from advancing in the
direction of the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. The intermediate Llanos
preserve, together with pastoral life, somewhat of a rude and wild
character which separates and keeps them remote from the civilization
of countries anciently cultivated.
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